I almost dropped my beer the first time I heard The Great, Grateful Dead break out a disco tune! I HATED "Shakedown Street" for years, but in the GD universe there are always twists, turns, and surprises. Now, after hearing many funky, jamin Shakedowns, especially to open shows....I Love it!

I've heard other deadheads talk about the hate-to-love transformation with Dead tunes. You got one?

Can't honestly say I ever "hated" a paticular tune, but there were those I definitely could do without listening to in the early days of my "conversion". Early on, I never really dug the slower stuff, perferring tunes that hopped (Eyes, China/Rider, Jack Straw, etc.). These days, there is nothing I love more than a sweet Peggy O or a gut wrenching Roses. The earliest exmple of this for me is probably Morning Dew; before I really and truly "got it", I kind of thought of the tune as a tad on the depressing side and would move on to something else, but one day, and I remember it well, while listening to Barton Hall, everything changed, the clouds parted and angels from Heaven began singing.

After 1972, we had huge house parties to celebrate the release of any new Grateful Dead record. Although each was met with great anticipation, there was always a degree of disappointment as well, some much more so than others.

The two best examples were Terrapin and Shakedown. There was a huge build up for Terrapin, trumpeted to be a "theme" album. As usual everybody broke out their special stash and assembled for the premiere. STRINGS! The Grateful Dead with STRINGS? This was almost as bad as the Grateful Dead with a horn section.(WOTF) What was the world coming to?

For Shakedown, the buzz was even larger as Lowell George was to have his hands all over this record and that was just fine with most of us. BUT DISCO? Good thing we all got stoned for that premiere, getting high was the only saving grace of the evening. Other than Fire, there wasn't much to write home about. After Shakedown, we quit the practice.

In time since, I've come to enjoy some of the monster Shakedown openers as well as Terrapin. Most of us were fairly tepid to Wake of the Flood, which turned out to be the sleeping giant of the Dead catalog. Needless to say the live translations always outranked the studio versions.

Hated the studio version of Shakedown, but often really got and get into some live versions, especially when Phil is high in the mix (no surprise there). Never liked Hey Jude, never liked the Beatles; sacrilege i know, but there you have it.

Kimbajed: ..great question. I pulled out my Lake Placid tape and listened to the entire show, including Weir's tunes, on its anniversay (1983-10-17). I must admit that the song "My Brother Esau" caught my attention -- I think I even went searching for the lyrics. (Haven't listened to again but it does qualify as a turnaround). -- AshesRising

Picasso Moon is just step above Easy Answers and both are far below Victim or the Crime by plenty. The 12/31/84 Shakedown Street is also a pretty good version that made it to the So Many Roads Box Set...

Row Jimmy. I went from thinking it was a big yawn to it being in my top five.

Great moment? I saw the boys play Row Jimmy in Pittsburgh summer of 1990 and was up front (at a stadium gig! one of the few times I bothered but GDTS gave me the gold that summer) and for some reason Jerry zeroed in on me for the second verse and chorus and caught me mouthing every word with him. At the end of the chorus he laughed and shook his head and turned his attention elsewhere for the rest of the song. I'll never forget it.

Let It grow. I think that was one of the few songs that benefitted from the midi technology. I found it boring then really grew to appreciate it. Someone mentioned not liking believe it or Not, I will second that emotion. Bad tune

Feel Like a Stranger- until I heard the version on WIthout a net I truly disliked the tune- now I like it much of the time

Tunes still waiting for a Reversal

Maybe it was the roses
Stella Blue
THrowing Stones
I need a Miracle- but this is in the process of converting after some 78-79 versions

Looks like rain- I do not think this is going to reverse- there was one version I lost track of where Bobby sounds like he is almost crying - legend has it he had a break up several days before he sang that night

El Paso- hate it

Mexacali Blues/Big River/Mama tried/Beat it on down the line......I dont buy the cowboy songs oh well

West LA Fadeaway
doughknees
might as well
Queen Jane
TOns of Steel
Black Peter- seems the only post drums ballad I like is Dew

I DO buy the cowboy thing and love Big River, Mama Tried, M. Blues, etc......but must agree on El Paso. The GD version is just Bobby talk-singing with Jerry noodling around the words. Still waiting to hear a version of that one that does justice to the Marty Robbins original.

I just put in 3-22-90 for no particular reason buy my own ;-) and, first of all I am floored by the quality of the the music in general not because I thought they were bad in 90, I've just been hearing a lot of negativity about the later years lately and was just blown away! But in reading the set list I saw that Picasso Moon was there and I ALWAYS hated that song. I put it right up there with Victim or the Crime ( I had concluded that the audience was the victime and the song was the crime - no big mystery there) and Believe it or Not. But in hearing it tonight I turned to my wife and said "this isn't such a bad song, as a matter of fact, it's pretty good.
So I don't know what I was thinking at the time but I'll bet it was what the 90's haters were thinking too.

3-22-90 - HFJ! Hey Fuckin' Jude. Come on. Great stuff.

Oh, and by the way - I LOVE the Grateful Dead. (the music, not the guys). I even love 'em when they're not so hot - as we all do.